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FootballBallon d’Or: Karim Benzema finally touches the Grail
The French striker from Real Madrid won the supreme award on Monday evening in Paris. He becomes the fifth French player to win the trophy.
Karim Benzema is the fifth French player to win the Ballon d’Or.
AFP
At almost 35 years old – 34 years and 302 days to be precise – Karim Benzema has won the Ballon d’Or of France-Football, crowning the best footballer of the year. The French striker of Real Madrid, big favorite of this election, was unsurprisingly named by the 100 journalists from 100 different countries designated for this election. The ceremony took place at the Parisian theater of Châtelet, in front of an audience of celebrities and football stars – current or past.
Benzema becomes the fifth Frenchman to win the Ballon d’Or, after Raymond Kopa (1958), Michel Platini (1983, 1984, 1985), Jean-Pierre Papin (1991) and Zinédine Zidane (1998), and he received his trophy from the hands of “Zizou”, one of his two idols (along with the Brazilian Ronaldo). He beat the Senegalese Sadio Mané (Liverpool / Bayern Munich), the Belgian Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) and the Pole Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich / Barcelona).
“Aesthetics of football”
This belated coronation represents a deserved reward for a player whose career has been punctuated with ups and downs. Arrived at Real Madrid in 2009, he scored for the Bernabeu club a total of 409 goals in 782 matches. He comes out of an incredible season, punctuated by a victory in the League of Nations with France, then the title of champion of Spain and in the Champions League with Real.
Stuck in a sex tape blackmail affair in 2015, he will no longer be selected for the France team for five and a half years. After being given a one-year suspended prison sentence, he benefits from the leniency of coach Didier Deschamps and returns with the Blues in 2021. He now has 37 goals in 87 caps despite his long absence.
“Benzema symbolizes an aesthetic of football, a way of producing a silky game”, does not hesitate to say of him Vincent Duluc, journalist at The Team and reference if any of French football.
“Receiving this trophy in front of you, in front of these millions of viewers, is an incredible pride, reacted Benzema after receiving his trophy. It makes me think back to when I was little, when I dreamed of being a professional footballer. I have always had two models in my career, they are Zidane and Ronaldo. They are both in the room tonight, it makes this moment even more special. I had difficult times, it’s true, but I always hung on. It is therefore a great honor that is done to me this evening.”
Karim Benzema on his arrival at the Théâtre du Châtelet on Monday evening in Paris.
AFP